


Soldier's Lullaby

by LittleLynn



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sharing a Bed, not necessarily in that order, spans from SEP right up to recalled Overwatch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-05 21:19:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10317176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLynn/pseuds/LittleLynn
Summary: Five times they had a share a bed, and one time they just wanted to.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is already completed, so I can guarantee it will not be abandoned/take months to update :') New chapters should go up twice a week, and thank you to [sailingonstardust](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailingonstardust/pseuds/sailingonstardust) who is betaing this ily <3

  


There were a lot of things Gabriel Reyes didn’t like about Jack Morrison. He was a naive, corn-fed, idealistic, barely legal farm boy; the antithesis of everything Gabriel was himself. And what Gabe disliked about Jack the most was just how much he liked him anyway.

It was irritating and inconvenient and dangerous.

Or at least, he’d like to be irritated about it, but it was hard in the face of one of those sunshine smiles.

Jack’s naive idealism might not last though. How it had survived so long in an environment where their fellow soldiers dropped dead every day with nothing more than ‘I guess his body couldn’t handle it’ as an answer was an enigma to Gabe already. It made him wonder if part of it at least was an act, Jack willing himself to still think like that, to resist the urge to be disillusioned with the whole thing already.

But Gabe’s burgeoning feelings were inconvenient at best and dangerous at worst. The last thing Gabe needed was to be pining after his roommate, his very friendly ‘we should get to know each other more, spend some time together!’ roommate. Constant exposure to big blue eyes, soft blonde hair and a pretty smile really wasn’t helping Gabe’s situation. Jack probably thought Gabe hated him with the lengths he had been going to to avoid him lately. 

Not to mention the fact that every time they went and got stabbed with another round of injections – which was damn near every two weeks – either one of them could drop dead.

There’d been almost ninety of them to start with, only three months in and they were down to fifty.

Gabe hadn’t known Jack Morrison long. Three months was nothing in the grand scheme of things, but the intense nature of the SEP programme, the way they had to live on top of each other, made it feel like a lot longer.

He knew that Jack liked to run before breakfast, that he got up at the asscrack of dawn, even though they didn’t need to, with a smile on his face. He knew the sound of Jack’s laugh as Gabe grumbled  _ farmer boy _ at him. He knew Jack liked his eggs over easy, but had no idea how to actually cook an egg. He knew Jack missed his family, going from calling them every day to having no contact with the outside world. It had been had been easy for Gabe, too long in special ops already, but hard for Jack. He knew Jack was worried that if he did die in this programme, no one would even tell his parents he was gone. He knew about the little curl of hair that always sprang out of place after a few hours, how it infuriated Jack, but Gabe thought it was cute. He knew about the nervous way Jack bit at his lips and that he rubbed the back of his neck when he was worried.

He knew a lot about Jack. It normally took him months to even bother to remember people’s names.

Gabe also knew something he wished he didn’t, something that scared him, though he’d never admit it.

He knew Jack had had a bad reaction to every single injection they’d been given so far.

He knew the doctors and nurses weren’t sure how he had survived this long, when every two weeks his body tried to die as more shit was pumped into his system.

It kept Gabriel up at night for days after every injection, straining his ears for sounds of distress, creeping out of his own bed and into the adjacent room to check Jack was still breathing. His own discomfort after injections was mild compared to Jack’s.

Four weeks ago he’d heard a crash and shot out of his room to find Jack seizing on the floor of their little shared living area. He hated seizures, hated that you had to just wait them out, that there was nothing you could do to stop them. It went on for a few minutes before it finally subsided, excruciating minutes. When Gabe had been sure it was over he carried Jack down to the medical bay and screamed at the doctors for continuing with his injections even though he was reacting so badly. The emotionless Doctor Herrit reminded him that Jack wasn’t reacting badly if he was still alive. Someone – three someones – grabbed him before his could fist connect with her jaw. 

That’s probably when Gabe knew he had a Jack related problem. He’d gone into this programme expecting some recruits were going to die and resolved to refrain from making any friends he was just going to lose the next day anyway.

He hadn’t accounted for Jack, though.

Losing Jack was an unacceptable outcome. It had only been three months, they weren’t even half way.

So even though his own head was pounding and his skin was burning up and he knew his body needed rest, Gabe lay rigid and aware, listening hard for any sound that might tell him Jack was in danger.

Gabe tensed impossibly further when he heard it, even though he wasn’t sure what  _ it _ was. The sound was faint but the walls were thin, and as Gabe strained to hear it slowly grew louder. It was almost a warbling; a bumping, rolling sound that was definitely not words.

Gabe didn’t tell himself it was probably nothing, because it had been serum day. He knew it was something, and he climbed out of bed to find out what. He’d creep into Jack’s room and check he was okay. If he was managing to sleep through it so far then he would probably appreciate being left to the bliss of unconsciousness. Besides, Gabe could always keep a vigil in the cramped chair in Jack’s bedroom. It wouldn’t be the first time, after all.

Gabe pulled on some boxer briefs – he’d been too hot to want anything on – and tiptoed out of his room, pushing open Jack’s door. He knew if he did it too slowly or too fast it would creak, and tried not to despair at the fact that he knew that already.

Jack wasn’t asleep, and only years of military training allowed Gabe to control the panic that grabbed him. Jack’s body was rigid and he was shivering so violently his bed was shaking.

“Shit Jackie, why didn’t you call for me?” Gabe scolded, trying not to let his worry show through, it would only make Jack worry too. He was by the bedside in a second, pulling the covers more tightly around Jack and feeling his forehead – cold and clammy. It wasn’t a fever, his body actually seemed to have lost all its heat. 

“Ss-orry f-f’ ww-wak-king y-you.” Jack chattered out, fear beginning to wrap itself around Gabe’s chest as just how cold Jack was started to sink in. He unconsciously rubbed at Jack’s arm in an attempt to warm him up, but it wasn’t enough.

Gabe didn’t even let himself think about it as he got up from the bed - with a shivering noise of protest from Jack - and dashed back to his own room. He grabbed his own quilts and marched back into Jack’s bedroom, tossing the bedding on the top of Jack’s own before lifting up the covers and slipping in beside Jack. He tried not to let whatever warmth there was pocketed away already escape when he climbed in, but Jack had barely managed to warm it up at all.

Jack let out a relieved noise through his constant shivers and Gabe dragged him to his fever-warm chest, wrapping an arm tightly around him and pulling the covers close again.

“Mm-my tac-t-tic d-didn’t ww-work,” Jack managed through violently clattering teeth, his whole body feeling like it was trying to shake apart in Gabe’s arms. He held him tighter.

“’Course it didn’t, your strategies are shit. You’re too honest.”

“I-I m-meant mm-my pla-an t-t’ try a-an’ s’sleep t-throu-ugh t-the sss-side e-ffec-cts.”

“Yeah, well. Wasn’t a bad plan, just shoulda had a back up too. Like getting me if you woke up instead of just suffering in silence like an idiot.”

“D-did-dn’t ww-want-t t-to d-ddist-turb y-y’” Jack mumbled, as if him dying quietly in his bed was less of an inconvenience than waking Gabe up.

“Pendejo.” Gabe grumbled, tightening his hold around Jack again. He must be getting crushed by the strong hold of Gabe’s arm by now, but Jack only seemed to wriggle impossibly closer, so Gabe didn’t loosen his hold. “Disturb me next time. Don’t wanna lose you, Jackie.” Gabe admitted quietly. He probably wouldn’t have had the courage to do it, but the room was dark and Jack was facing away from him and still shivering violently in his arms; he couldn’t not say it.

Jack turned his shaking body in Gabe’s tight hold, it made them feel closer somehow, more intimate, as Jack pressed his cold and clammy face into Gabe’s warm neck.

“Ss-ssorr-r-y.” Jack apologised. He was always doing that, Gabe could feel his lips moving against the skin of his neck.

“Stop apologising, just come and get me next time.” Gabe replied, his fingers were carding through Jack’s blonde hair. He hadn’t noticed when he started doing it, but he couldn’t find it in himself to stop either.

“D-ddidn’t kn-now y-y’ c-cared-d.” It was a joke, even through the shivers Gabe could tell that Jack meant it as a joke, but guilt gripped at him as he remembered all the times that week he’d tried to avoid Jack, how that might have been part of the reason why Jack hadn’t come and got him when he’d woken up freezing in his own skin.

“Then I’m the one that’s sorry.” Gabe replied, with more sincerity than Jack expected.

“I f-feel m-mmuch b-b-better nn-ow.” Jack lied, trying and failing to suppress the shivers still wracking his body.

“No you don’t. You’re still shaking like a leaf.” Gabe growled, annoyed at Jack for trying to lie, angry at the programme for continuing with Jack’s injections, furious at himself for ignoring Jack this week because of his own stupid bullshit.

“N-no. I-I d-do f-ff-eel mm-much b-bett-ter nn-ow.” Jack insisted, and Gabe didn’t get it until he felt Jack burrow himself further into Gabe’s body, and he realised it wasn’t just the heat Jack was chasing.

It took all of Gabe’s willpower not to press a kiss to Jack’s temple, and even then it turned out not to be enough. Hopefully Jack wouldn’t remember in the morning. Hopefully he would.

Jack tried to talk again, but his persistent shivering was leaving a clenching ball of fear twisting and turning in Gabe’s gut, so he gently hushed him instead.

“Shh, stop talking cariño. Try to sleep.” Gabe rubbed at Jack’s arm, couldn’t really tell if he was managing to warm him up at all or not. Jack seemed more content at least, less scared than when Gabe had first walked into his room.

“S-ss-tay?” Jack asked, cold fingers curled against Gabe’s hot chest, head resting in the crook of Gabe’s neck, under his chin.

“’Course, sunshine.” Gabe answered, giving Jack a little squeeze.

“T-to c-cold-d t-tto b-bb-be s-suns-shin-ne.” Jack chattered, making Gabe snort a little laugh. At least Jack was still in good spirits.

“Yeah, well, you’re too straight laced to be moonshine.” Gabe quipped, startling a little laugh out of Jack. It sounded strange as it fought its way out around shivers, but any laugh from Jack was a good laugh, really. “Now go to sleep, Jackie.”

“Yy-yess-s-s-ir!” Jack replied, clearly aiming for sassy but missing it by a mile with how much he was still shivering. Gabe was fairly sure Jack was smiling anyway. That was something, at least.

He’d take Jack to the infirmary if he wasn’t improving by morning, or if he got worse at any point. Gabe was resolved to scoop him up and march him down there, even though Jack hated it. A result of too much time spent in there probably.

Gabe thought he felt a pair of cold lips press briefly against his chest, but all of Jack was cold at the moment; it was probably just his imagination.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos are loved and comments are adored ^^ Next chapter will appear on the weekend <3
> 
> Come chat to me on [tumblr](http://shadyanne.tumblr.com/), and if you play Overwatch maybe we can play together!


	2. 2

 

“Come on Jackie, we gotta keep moving.” Gabe’s voice was strained as he hauled Jack back up and pushed him forward, Jack tripping more and more as he grew increasingly lightheaded. He was losing a lot of blood.

“Sorry. Trying.” Jack replied, but his voice was slurred even to his own ears. He stumbled again, but Gabe’s strong hands were under his arms before he could properly fall.

“Thought you were the fastest asshole in our squad. Always rubbing that in my face. Where’s it now, huh?” Gabe teased, trying to spur him into moving faster, though they both knew that if Jack could, he would be.

He wished he could put his biotic field down and give his body a chance to heal, but it would take too long; the bastion units chasing them would catch up before it had time to help. Their only chance was to keep running, to find a place to hole up.

“Was never bleeding out in training.” Jack pointed out before doubling over with a sharp gasp, clutching at the nasty wound in his side. Clipped by a bastion sentry, he was lucky he wasn’t dead already. He knew he was only moving because of the serum they’d pumped into him. If he were a normal soldier, he’d be dead already.

“Fuck, Jackie. I know it hurts but we’ve got to keep moving.” Gabe’s hand pressed down on his wound over the makeshift bandage of Gabe’s jacket to try and staunch the bleeding, even if only for a second. “Just another mile or two and there’s an abandoned town. We’ll find a basement, hide out there until we can escape properly, get you better.”

Jack grit his teeth, vision swimming, trying to blink himself back into focus, but it was only getting worse. He knew it was further than a mile or two, Gabe was just trying to keep him moving. Gabe was good at hiding it, but Jack could tell he was scared, and scared for Jack no doubt, not himself.

Jack forced himself to press on, breath growing laboured and tripping over his own feet every few steps. He’d have fallen constantly without Gabe there to steady him. He was trying to run but they were moving slowly because of him. Gabe was fine, he’d already be at safety if it weren’t for Jack. The thought forced Jack to try and move faster.

Jack ran. He wasn’t sure for how far, all of his focus going into putting one foot in front of the other. His pain ratcheted ever upwards as he jostled his body and lost more blood, feeling more faint with every step, until he put his foot down and fell towards it, blacking out for just a second. Gabe’s reflexes were the only thing keeping him from hitting the ground.

“Not now, not yet Jackie, you can make it, it’s not much further, come on.” Gabe was trying to keep the panic out of his voice, but Jack knew him well enough to hear it plain as day. He came around again quickly but blearily, hardly having been out for a few seconds, but there were black patches in his vision. He couldn’t get his eyes to focus on Gabe’s face. It annoyed him, it was a beautiful face. But that wasn’t what he should be focusing on. It hurt to try to focus now, thoughts trickling through his mind before he could catch them properly.

“Go on without me.” Jack garbled out, then giggled wildly at himself, sounding like some cheesy self-sacrificing hero in one of those old films. He hadn’t meant it to sound like that.

“What? Fuck off. No.” Gabe growled back at him, trying to tug him back to standing, but Jack couldn’t get his legs to support him anymore.

“’m not gonna make it Gabe, you need to go.” Jack worked hard to force himself to focus on speaking, on making sense.

“Well I ain’t fucking leaving you, pendejo.” Gabe admonished. Jack wasn’t sure what that word was, but he was pretty sure most of the words Gabe called him were some form of ‘idiot’, albeit undeniably swimming with affection.

“Gabe, I can’t even stand.” Jack’s voice was strained. He could feel consciousness trying to leave him again. He was in so much pain he kind of wished it would.

“Well alright then.” Gabe said with a surprising amount of resolve. Jack felt relief wash over him at the thought that Gabe was going to go, going to survive. It was better than any pain killer.

But it only lasted a moment before he found himself being hoisted up and carried like a blushing bride. Jack cried out sharply as the hold agitated his wound roughly, pressing down on it hard. He didn’t want to think about how much blood he must have lost already.

“Sorry cariño, but like you said, you can’t even stand and we’ve got to get out of here.” Gabe said, sounding genuinely apologetic behind his usual bravado as he started to run again.

“No Gabe, I’m slowing you down.” Jack protested, even as his hands curled into Gabe’s shirt.

“Damn right you are.” Gabe grunted. “When did you get so heavy? You used to be a twink.” Gabe joked, it startled a laugh out of Jack, made him smile blearily up at Gabe, made him feel normal for a moment.

“You love it.” Jack slurred back, the teasing comfortable between them. Jack was afraid that he might miss the chance to see it turn into something else, something more, if he died today.

But then, there were worse places to die than in Gabriel Reyes’ arms. In fact, he was struggling to think of a better place at all. Away from this war, he supposed, somewhere that Gabriel would be alright, no matter what happened to Jack. Somewhere safe.

“I don’t know, I am partial to twinks.” Gabe huffed out as he ran with the added weight of Jack in his arms.

Jack hummed happily, smiling stupidly up at Gabe. Even though he wasn’t looking at him, his head was swimming again, his vision growing dark. He felt cold.

“You’re just partial to me.” Jack mumbled out as dark overcame him again, losing his grip on consciousness and going limp in Gabe’s arms.

“Jack? Jackie? Jackie, wake up! Fuck, not now. Just hold on cariño, hold on for me.”

The next thing Jack was aware of was warmth. All around him, inside him, especially over his wound, like a salve of light. His wound still throbbed steadily but was no longer screaming through his body and setting fire to every nerve. He was disorientated and groggy, but he knew what he could feel was his biotic field.

He could feel other things as well, like the hand combing through his hair and the thigh underneath his head, acting as a pillow for him. He sunk into both. There was a blanket over him too, and something softening the ground beneath him, making it less unforgiving.

Jack blinked open his eyes, thankfully not having to wince away from the light as the room they were in was only dimly lit.

“Gabe?” Jack’s voice was groggy and a little ragged, but otherwise better than he expected it to be.

“Hey, Jackie.” Gabe replied softly, hand still stroking through Jack’s hair.

“How long was I out?” Jack asked, keeping his voice low like Gabe’s.

“Not sure, difficult to tell down here. Half a day? Maybe more.” Gabe replied, before continuing softly, “You scared me.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t do it again, promise me.” Gabe demanded, even though they both knew the realities of the war they were fighting, that neither of them could ever promise that they weren’t going to get hurt.

“I promise, I promise I won’t.”

“And don’t ever try to tell me to leave you again, carbón. No more heroic bullshit.”

“I was slowing you down.”

“Yeah, and would you have left me, huh? If it was the other way around?”

“Never.”

“Yeah, so don’t ask me to either.” Gabe grunted quietly, fingers resuming petting Jack’s hair.

“Where are we?” Jack asked, after letting himself drift for a few moments, under the comforting blanket of Gabe’s presence.

“Got us to that town, we’re in a basement. I heard the Omnics moving around outside a while ago, but the hatch down here is well hidden and seems to be camouflaged against their sensors. We should be okay.”

“Do you think they’ll come back?”

“Probably. They’re not stupid. When they don’t find us or your body they’ll come back around and check again. But likely only once, they’re not the kind to mindlessly hunt down two soldiers when they could be better deployed elsewhere.”

“If they find us, we’re trapped like dogs.” Jack said, trying to press down the fear that followed the thought, finding it hard to do. Something about the Omnics scared him more than other people ever could.

“They won’t find us.” Gabe whispered forcefully, willing Jack to believe it.

Jack sat up slowly, Gabe’s hand stilling in his hair and supporting him as he manoeuvred himself into a sitting position. He slumped heavily against Gabe. Gabe wrapped an arm around him, holding him close, he could tell Jack was scared.

“Do you think the rest of the team survived?” Jack asked quietly. He knew Gabe couldn’t know for sure. The six of them had gotten separated during the operation, Gabe and Jack torn away from the rest as the bastions reconfigured into sentries, effectively blocking off entire routes. Jack had shoved Gabe out of the sudden line of devastating fire, getting clipped himself as he dove to the side with him.

“If they managed to stay together, then maybe. If the Omnics were successful in splitting them up even further, then probably not. We got lucky.” Gabe answered, about as hopeful as he ever dared to get.

They had gotten lucky, one of the bastions reformed itself into some kind of tank – something they hadn’t known they were capable of, a new kind of upgrade, Jack guessed. They’d dived out of the way and the bastion had blown a hole clear through the wall. In the dust and carnage of the hit, they’d been able to duck out of the hole and start making a run for it. At least bastions were slow on two legs.

Jack didn’t reply, just swallowed heavily as he thought of the four friends he might never see again. Even Gabe begrudgingly called them friends; there were so few of the SEP soldiers left, it was hard not to be. Jack tucked his head into Gabe’s shoulder, tugging the blanket up around them and letting out a shaky breath.

“You should go back to sleep.”

“You need rest too.” Jack replied, no doubt in his mind that Gabe hadn’t closed his eyes for even a moment while Jack was unconscious.

“I’m fine. You can take the next watch, get a few more hours first. The biotic field probably only has a little while left in it, and you know it works best when you’re sleeping.”

“You must be tired, though.” Jack protested weakly, knowing he wasn’t going to win this argument.

“Yeah, but I didn’t get my side ripped out today, so I don’t get priority on rest. Now go back to sleep.” Gabe instructed, and Jack complied, shutting his eyes and settling into Gabe’s warmth.

“Gabe?” Jack mumbled after a little while.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for not leaving me behind.”

“I never will cariño, go to sleep.”

“Okay. Gabe?”

“Yeah?” Gabe sighed, growing a little exasperated with Jack’s lack of sleeping.

“I won’t leave you either.” Jack said, Gabe didn’t answer, but he felt soft lips pressing a kiss to his hair.

It was easy to fall back asleep in Gabe’s arms.

Jack was startled awake again by heavy footsteps clanging loudly directly above him. Jack jolted upright, aggravating his side. Gabe quickly wrapped a hand over Jack’s mouth to stop him making any noise.

“Shhhh, Jackie.” It was so quiet Jack could barely hear him, it was a risk for Gabe to make any noise at all.

_ Omnics? _ Jack mouthed, even though he knew the answer, Gabe nodded.

Jack was scared. He knew he shouldn’t be, knew he had been trained not to be, knew that maybe better soldiers wouldn’t be. But he was. He figured it was because they were trapped, that their survival rested on those machines just not figuring out that there was a basement, that the only thing they could do was sit and wait. He never felt scared when he could fight, but he was now.

If he had been with anyone else, if a third person had been with them, Jack would have pushed it down, put on a brave face and stoic mask. But there wasn’t. It was just the two of them and he didn’t see the point.

Jack didn’t bother hiding his fear or face from Gabe, nor the way his hands had started to shake as eerie scrapes and thumps from above them continued. Gabe’s hand closed around Jack’s own, holding them steady and drawing them into his lap, his free hand coming up to cup Jack’s cheek, deep brown eyes looking at him steadily.

_ It’s okay, _ Gabe mouthed, even though it wasn’t, even though they might die soon.

It wasn’t fair. He wasn’t supposed to die trapped in a basement without ever telling Gabe how he felt, without ever kissing him.

Well, maybe it was the adrenaline, but one of those things could be fixed right now and Jack couldn’t think of a single damn reason not to.

He closed the space between them, pressing his thin lips against Gabe’s thicker ones with little finesse. Gabe didn’t even hesitate, moving his hand to cup the back of Jack’s head and responding quickly to the sudden kiss. It made Jack wonder how long they had both wanted this but never done anything about it.

It was desperate and their lips were chapped and their teeth kept knocking together, but it was perfect.

If Jack was going to die here, then in a make-shift bed kissing his best friend seemed like a good way to do it.

Jack wasn’t sure how long they kissed for, trying to forget the world around them, but when Gabe finally pulled away, he still didn’t want to let him go.

“Listen.” Gabe murmured almost silently, and Jack did, hearing the unmistakable sounds of the Omnics leaving the derelict town, either giving up or moving on with their hunt for Jack and Gabe.

They stayed silent for at least half an hour after they heard the last noise, keeping quiet even after that, in case they had left any units behind, unlikely as that was. Jack managed to convince Gabe to let him take the next watch, Gabe having not slept now for almost two days. Jack sat up straight against the wall as Gabe shifted their little bed of salvaged blankets around until he was comfortable, propping his head on his hand and looking up at Jack.

“So what was that back then? Just scared of dying without ever being kissed?” Gabe teased, trying to make light, his hand was picking at the dust on the floor, almost as if he was nervous of Jack’s response.

“Scared of dying without ever kissing you, I guess.” Jack answered honestly, not rising to Gabe’s teasing. He didn’t want to pretend it had been nothing. “Without you knowing.”

“Knowing what?”

“I love you.” Jack said simply, and it was simple really, nearly dying had put that into perspective. “It’s alright if you don’t, I just wanted – ”

“Of course I do. Shit, Jackie, I think it only took me about four months from meeting your scrawny ass to realise how fucked I was for you.” Gabe grumbled. Jack felt his face light up with a smile, only growing brighter as Gabe tugged him forward to kiss him again, muttering something about sunshine smiles. “Doesn’t make this a good idea though. We’re still soldiers, could still die at any moment. You know the higher ups won’t like it.” Gabe pointed out, only pulling away a few inches, like he couldn’t bear to go further.

“Then we won’t tell them.”

“Golden boy breaking the rules? They’ll say I’ve had a bad influence on you.” Gabe grinned, mouth hovering just over Jack’s neck, a new kind of teasing for them. Jack liked it.

“Fuck the rules.”

“Yeah,” Gabe sighed, lips brushing against Jack’s skin as he spoke, “fuck the rules.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact number one: It's my birthday today. Fun fact number two: Comments make me smile :') 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next one on Thursday <3 Come say hi on [tumblr](http://shadyanne.tumblr.com/)!


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and kudos, I hope you enjoy this chapter too <3

 

Overwatch. That was what they were starting to call it. Didn’t really matter to Gabe beyond the way that it had Jack smiling again; all that optimism and hope he had been losing had started creeping back to him when they were invited onto the programme.

Didn’t really matter what they called it, it was a last ditch attempt by the world to save itself from the Omnics. Countries that hated each other were finally admitting that they needed to work together to stand a chance. Too bloody little too fucking late if you asked Gabe, but they were here and he would give everything he had to prove himself wrong.

They weren’t even a proper army, not really, more like a specialist strike team. But that suited Gabe more in a lot of ways. It was more like what he did before he joined the SEP, which was probably why most of them unofficially looked to him to lead. They still had a boss, but Gabe wasn’t sure who it was. Some asshole from the UN who had never been in a fight in his life, probably. Didn’t matter, they were pretty much left to themselves, told where they were needed and when and expected to get there. Beyond that they ran themselves. Better that way: arguments in the team about strategy didn’t escalate into diplomatic issues between nations.

They were a good group, from what he could tell so far. Himself and Jack were the last of the SEP soldiers, something he tried not to think about and Jack actively ignored. Captain Amari – Ana – was a wicked sniper and a skilled medic, enhancements in one eye making her deadly. Torbjörn was an excellent mechanic; they’d have lost one of their bases to the Omnics already were it not for his defences; thus the UN’s decision to move them. Reinhardt was a crusader through and through; he’d taken hits for them all already. They were the core strike team. There were other soldiers, of course though, and they received new recruits every week.

With himself, Jack, and Ana hammering out tactics, most of their missions were successful; that had to count for something. It was probably why the UN was content to leave them alone at the moment.

Gabe scanned his eyes over the other’s sharing the transport, noticing the their tired faces. They were being moved to the Swiss base, still under construction but with far superior anti-Omnic tech than any of the other bases. In theory, the whole base was invisible to any Omnic sensors, but Gabe wasn’t going to take that on faith.

Jack was in the seat next to him, fast asleep. He was exhausted from days of briefings and conferences with the UN about the new base and their next missions. Jack was always better at dealing with that stuff than Gabe was. Jack’s head was hanging awkwardly forward and Gabe had to crunch down on the urge to move Jack onto his shoulder and let him sleep there. No one knew about their relationship, though Ana was sharp enough that Gabe was sure she suspected something. The UN wouldn’t like it, would think it compromised them in battle, so they kept it to themselves. Jack was convinced the team would keep their secret, but Gabe didn’t trust as easy; it would take longer for him to be willing to let them in on it. He wouldn’t risk losing Jack over a recruit with a blabber mouth.

The flight wasn’t much longer, the stealth jet they were on turning what might have been a long flight into only a few hours. Jack would still be trying to run on only a few hours sleep over the past few days. Gabe felt guilty, but they’d decided early on that it was best that Jack or Ana deal with the suits as Gabe had no patience for them. But Ana had been waging her own fight the past few days, warring against the people trying to tell her that Fareeha wouldn’t be allowed at the Swiss base. Gabe had already learned that there was no saying no to an Amari, and sure enough, Fareeha was swinging her legs in one of the seats right now. Gabe wasn’t sure if the base would be the safest place for her or the least, but it was Ana’s call, anyway.

They landed a little while later, and Gabe gently shook Jack’s shoulder to rouse him.

“Wake up Jackie, we’re here.”

“Ugh, already?”

“Afraid so. You can sleep more when we get inside, hopefully more comfortably.” Gabe pointed out, and Jack extricated himself from his seat, stretching harshly to loosen himself back up.

They made their way out of the jet, and it was only Ana’s smirk that told him his hand was at the small of Jack’s back. He whipped it away quickly and glared at her. She laughed.

The recruits already manning the base and scientists running it saluted them as they came off the jet. Gabe, Jack, and Ana managed half-hearted returning salutes, Reinhardt gave a more enthusiastic one along with a booming greeting, while none of the others were military enough to bother saluting at all. 

“Welcome to the Swiss Base, agents. It’s an honour. Some of the base is still under construction, but the security net is fully functional.” One of the recruits already stationed there started speaking while leading them into the building. He seemed nervous, but determined to make a good impression.

“What is still under construction?” Torbjörn asked, catching up with and walking alongside the recruit, who had apparently forgotten to share his name in his nervousness.

“The lab, medbay, control room, holding cells, gym, mess, armoury, hangar and conference room are all finished and ready for use.” The recruit evaded, though not very well.

“That wasn’t exactly his question.” Ana pointed out with a smile, trying to put the recruit at ease.

“Erm, well. Not all of your rooms are ready yet.” He admitted with a wince. “You’re not in the main barracks, you will all get your own rooms! But some of them aren’t quite done.”

“Relax, I am sure we will manage. How many short are we?” Ana asked.

“Well we’re planning to build many more rooms for agents, but right now we only have six. We weren’t informed that Miss Amari would be joining us too.” He admitted.

“That is fine, Fareeha can stay – ”

“We’ll share, it’s fine.” Gabe interrupted before Ana could say that Fareeha would stay with her. Everyone turned to look at him quizzically, but Gabe had seen an opening and taken it. “We used to share a room throughout the SEP programme, it won’t be a problem.” Gabe grunted. It was only part of a lie; they shared a living space and a bathroom, not a bedroom.

He could tell Ana knew he was fibbing just a bit, and it still made more sense for her and Fareeha to share. Gabe just hoped she let it slide.

“Sure, it’ll be like old times.” Jack smiled, catching on quick as he always did, punching Gabe in the shoulder, trying to help play off the situation.

“If you’re sure, then that would be ideal. Fareeha snores like a trucker.” Ana shrugged, an indignant ‘hey!’ behind shouted by Fareeha and Gabe could have hugged Ana then and there for letting them get away with it.

The recruit – who they eventually learned was called Hopkins – started leading them on a tour before realising how tired they all looked. Planes might be faster, but jetlag was still a bitch, so Hopkins showed them down to their rooms.

They were generous rooms; big bed, en suite bathroom, ample wardrobe, and a desk with a secured computer.

“So, that was pretty sly back there.” Jack smirked as he closed the door behind them.

“You complaining?” Gabe asked with a smug smile as he slung his modest duffle bag of possessions up onto the chest of drawers. 

“Oh yes, how simply awful to have to share a bedroom with my boyfriend.” Jack rolled his eyes and Gabe couldn’t help but laugh, walking up to him and planting a long kiss on his lips, because he could, because there were four walls around them. 

Gabe eventually went to pull away from the sweet kiss, only to have Jack’s teeth hold onto his lower lip and deny his escape. Not that Gabe was complaining, happily letting himself get pulled back in for a more heated kiss. He crowded Jack back against the door and slipped his tongue into Jack’s mouth, receiving a hungry sigh for his troubles.

Jack’s hands roamed over Gabe’s back, pulling him forward until they were flush against each other. Gabe grinned into the kiss and Jack’s hands grew impatient and started rucking his shirt up, moaning softly when Gabe slipped a thigh between Jack’s legs.

“I thought you were tired.” Gabe teased, pressing his thigh up into the growing hardness in Jack’s pants.

“I feel rejuvenated at the prospect of thick walls and privacy.” Jack muttered before resuming the kiss, taking Gabe’s hands and guiding them round to his ass, Gabe giving it a squeeze and swallowing Jack’s needy moan.

“Is that so?” Gabe smirked, sliding his hands down further and hoisting Jack up, Jack letting out a surprised yelp before smiling and wrapping his legs around Gabe’s waist.

“Indeed it is.” Jack smiled, ducking in to continue kissing Gabe, which made it a little harder to navigate to the bed, but Gabe hardly minded, all things considered.

He dropped Jack down with an ‘umph’ and a grin, leaning over him to kiss him soundly before standing up at the end of the bed. Gabe wasn’t sure how he had gotten so lucky that someone as bright as Jack would see something worthwhile in him, something worth loving. But he damn well worked hard to make sure Jack knew he hadn’t made a mistake, that Gabe would treat him the way he deserved to be treated, that Gabe would love him forever.

“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to do something?” Jack teased, toeing off his boots and leaning back on his forearms, batting his eyelashes up at Gabe.

Gabe grinned, leaving Jack alone on the bed and taking his time walking over to the dresser and fishing the lube out of his bag. Jack had a ridiculous flavoured tube in his own bag, but Gabe knew right where his was. He chucked the lube on the bed next to Jack, who had shucked his pants. He grinned up at Gabe and answered his next question by easily spreading legs.

“Oh, you want it like that tonight, do you?” Gabe teased, crawling onto the bed between Jack’s spread legs and nipping at his throat.

“Please.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely.” Gabe winked, sitting back to pull his own shirt off. Jack tugged his own off too before grabbing at Gabe’s belts. “Impatient.” Gabe teased again, letting Jack fight with his belts and fly while he kissed gently at Jack’s neck.

“Very.” Jack groaned, finally getting Gabe’s pants loose enough to push them down his thick thighs.

Gabe pressed a few kisses to Jack’s mouth and jaw before standing up again to kick his pants and underwear to the floor, sending Jack a wicked grin as Jack stared unabashedly, biting at his lower lip in a way that definitely inflated Gabe’s ego a little.

“Like what you see, cariño?” Gabe asked, even though he was well aware of the answer, palming his thick cock as Jack watched hungrily, underwear tented obscenely.

Gabe wanted to tease him for a little while, but he didn’t get the chance as Jack crawled forward on all fours and started mouthing at the base of his cock, making Gabe gasp and lace his fingers through Jack’s hair.

“Fuck, Jackie.” Gabe groaned, feeling Jack smirk against his dick before he started to lick his way up it’s length, lapping at the head and pressing his tongue against the slit.

Jack looked up and trained his baby blues on Gabe as he opened wide and sunk down on Gabe’s cock, taking Gabe as deep as he could before gagging and sucking hard as he came up again, tongue tracing the vein on the underside of his cock. Jack pulled off and played with Gabe’s foreskin, pulling it up and dipping his tongue between it and Gabe’s leaking cock, leaving Gabe gasping and gripping his hair even harder.

Jack trailed lower, taking one of Gabe’s balls in his mouth and rolling it around on his tongue, drooling around it and sucking sweetly before moving on to the next one. The sight was almost as intoxicating to Gabe as the sensation, Jack on all fours in front of him, sucking on his balls, with Gabe’s hard cock resting heavy against his face.

Jack let Gabe’s balls fall from his mouth and returned his attention to his leaking cock. The only warning Gabe got was a devious smirk before Jack deepthroated his cock like he was being paid for it, throat constricting torturously around his length as Jack took him down. He couldn’t take Gabe all the way yet, hardly surprising considering that Gabe had been big  _ before _ the enhancement programme, but Jack seemed fucking determined to conquer it anyway.

“Jesus fuck, Jackie, you’re gonna have to stop if you want me to fuck you.” Gabe grunted, really not wanting Jack to stop bobbing his head but also really wanting to fuck him properly, in a proper bed, with proper privacy for once.

Jack pulled off his cock with an obscene noise that almost had Gabe coming on his pretty face, looking up at him with a mischievous look in his eyes.

“I think I can get you hard again, don’t you?” Jack winked before sinking back down on Gabe’s cock, and fuck, he was probably right. Another side effect of the serum seemed to be an ability to get it back up again pretty damn quick, but fuck if it didn’t feel like Jack was about to suck all of the come right out of him.

Gabe panted as Jack bobbed his head on his cock, rocking his hips a little into Jack’s face, tugging on Jack’s hair and making him moan around his cock, the vibrations making Gabe moan in tandem.

“I’m close.” Gabe warned. Jack hummed happily around his cock, balancing himself rather impressively on one arm as he reached behind Gabe to rub his fingers over his hole.

Gabe groaned loudly, his orgasm slamming into him as Jack slipped the tip of his finger into his hole and his throat constricted around his cock.

“Fuck,  _ Jack _ .” Gabe shouted – hopefully the walls really were as thick as Hopkins was saying – as he spilled into Jack’s throat. Jack pulled off his cock, using his hand to stroke him through his orgasm, swallowing what was in his mouth and deliberately letting the last of Gabe’s come paint his face.

“Hermosa.” Gabe said when he finally got his breath back, bending down on shaky legs to kiss Jack, pulling back to use his fingers to collect the come on his face. Jack grabbed his wrist before he could wipe it on the sheets and wrapped his lips around his fingers, sucking them clean. “You’re a menace.” Gabe griped, albeit breathlessly, while his dick gave a valiant twitch.

“Got to get you going again, old man.” Jack teased, dragging Gabe back down on the bed as he shuffled backwards, up to the pillows.

“I’m only five years older than you.” Gabe grumbled, even though Jack was well aware.

“Then you shouldn’t have any trouble getting it back up again, should you?” Jack grinned cheekily. Really, without the serum neither of them would be able to get hard again so quick. As far as side effects go, it was one that Gabe  _ really _ didn’t mind.

“You’re a brat.” Gabe growled, gripping Jack’s hip and flipping him onto his stomach, smirking to himself as Jack yelped at the unexpected move.

“Mmm whatever I am, I’m yours.” Jack sighed, being deliberately cheesy as he pressed his ass up and back against Gabe’s sensitive dick.

“It’s a shame your ass is so flat.” Gabe grinned as he gave it a swat and bemoaned the lack of jiggle; though Jack gasped and that was what really mattered.

“Yeah, well, we can’t all have thighs that could kill and man and a bubble butt sent from heaven, now can we? Besides, you love it.” Jack replied. Gabe knew Jack loved the way his ass bounced when Jack fucked him, but god help him, he was right; Jack’s ass might be flat, but it was Gabe’s ass and he loved it.

“I do.”

“Show me how much.” Jack teased, lifting his ass up again, wiggling it at Gabe in a way that would have been ridiculous if Gabe wasn’t so turned on.

Gabe didn’t bother replying, just wrapped his hands around Jack’s hips and hauled his ass up to his mouth, leaving Jack squealing and trying to support himself with his arms as Gabe licked over his hole.

“Put me down!” Jack whined, slapping at Gabe’s arm, even as his voice trembled when Gabe’s tongue pressed down over his hole. “This is not comfortable.”

Gabe relented and let Jack down, tapping his ass to get him to move up the bed and spreading his legs apart, shoving a pillow under his hips because Gabe was a goddamn gentleman and was going to make sure Jack was comfortable while he ate his ass.

“Better, princess?”

“Shut up. Yes. Much.” Jack bit back. Gabe laughed before grabbing a handful of Jack’s ass in each hand and spreading him wide.

Gabe hummed contentedly and set back to work, lapping over Jack’s hole and relishing in the needy whimpers Jack let out. He teased him for a while, getting Jack wet before pressing his tongue inside, Jack’s loud whine like music to his ears. Gabe blindly groped around for the lube, finding it and slicking his fingers. He pressed one in alongside his tongue and listened to Jack  _ howl _ .

“Yeah, that’s it Jackie.” Gabe encouraged, nudging Jack’s hips to get him up on all fours, making room for him to reach around and start stroking his hard cock. It was difficult to balance, but he was resolved to make sure he wasn’t the only one who came twice tonight. He pressed his face back against Jack’s ass.

Jack moaned wantonly, rutting back against Gabe’s face and fucking forward into his hand. Gabe could tell he was close; Jack always came quickly with Gabe’s tongue up his ass. Gabe worked his finger alongside his tongue and pressed against Jack’s sweet spot, grinning against his ass when Jack cried out and came hard, clenching around Gabe’s tongue and finger and spilling on the sheets.

Jack moaned and fell to his side onto the sheets, avoiding the wet spot and batting a hand at Gabe when he continued to massage his over-sensitive prostate.

“You’re not stretched enough yet, Jackie.” Gabe pointed out, kissing a line up Jack’s neck and nudging him onto his back for easier access.

“That’s because your dick is stupid.” Jack grumbled, making Gabe laugh as he shifted around, settling his legs on either side of Gabe’s waist. Gabe helped him stuff the pillow back under his hips.

“You love my dick.” Gabe grinned, taking the offending appendage in hand and rubbing it against Jack’s ass, feeling it start to perk up again at the thought of being  _ in _ that ass.

“True.” Jack admitted, rocking back against Gabe again, no doubt just to tease. “Leave my prostate alone for a while.”

“Of course.” Gabe replied, pressing and gentle kiss to Jack’s slack lips and reaching for the lube again, reslicking his fingers.

He loved fingering Jack. Gabe loved most things that involved a naked Jack, but even when it was like this, soft and slow between rounds of sex, he loved it. Loved the intimacy, loved Jack’s little hitched breaths, the way he rocked back on his fingers so sweetly, the way he would fidget to get Gabe’s fingers exactly where he wanted them.

“Feel good, mi sol?” Gabe asked after a few minutes of gently stretching Jack open with two fingers, carefully avoiding his sweet spot.

“Yeah,” Jack sighed, one of his hands idly coming down to play with his still soft cock, no longer twitching away with oversensitivity. “I can take another.”

“So good.” Gabe murmured, leaning up to kiss Jack again and working in a third finger, spreading Jack open on them, his own cock hard and throbbing again. “Still too sensitive?”

“Just a little.” Jack hummed softly as he slowly started to get hard again, making pleased little sounds as Gabe kissed his way down his body, licking over his perky pink nipples and down his navel, three fingers still buried in his ass.

“This okay?” Gabe asked, checking Jack wasn’t still too sensitive to want it. Jack just groaned happily and nodded, holding his still mostly soft cock up to make it easier for Gabe to wrap his lips around it.

Gabe sucked gently, coaxing Jack back to hardness with his mouth, tongue lapping over his frenulum as he bobbed slowly, enjoying the feeling of Jack getting harder in his mouth. Jack was whimpering again, no doubt because of the fingers in his ass and mouth around his increasingly interested cock. Gabe sucked absently at Jack’s cock as he worked his fingers, slipping in his little finger just because he knew Jack liked four and making sure he was stretched properly. Jack moaned at the feeling and Gabe would have smirked if not for the cock in his mouth as he felt him harden up completely.

“Come on, Gabe, I’m ready.” Jack complained, though it was far too breathy to have much of an impact.

“Whatever you say, cariño.” Gabe said after letting Jack’s cock slip from his mouth with a pop. He reached once more for the lube, Jack whining in the back of his throat as his fingers slipped free too.

Gabe slicked up his thick cock generously before pressing it against Jack’s well stretched hole, teasing them both a little bit, rubbing the head of his cock back and forth over Jack’s rim. He only pushed in when Jack let out a string of pretty ‘pleases’, sheathing himself in one long, languid slide.

“Ah, so good Gabe, mhm.” Jack said in little breathy pants, fingers digging into Gabe’s shoulders, though he was barely able to register anything beyond the tight heat engulfing his cock.

“Fuck, Jackie, how’re you still so tight?” Gabe groaned, burying his face in Jack’s neck and biting down on his shoulder. It was somewhere easy to hide.

“Your cock is just too big.” Jack replied, but he was moaning and pushing back on said cock, so Gabe took it as the compliment it probably was. “Come on, fuck me.”

Gabe happily did as he was bid, drawing his hips back and pulling almost all the way out before snapping back forward and fucking Jack deep and hard. He built up a brutal pace that anyone not injected with super soldier serum would have found impossible to maintain, knocking Jack a little further up the bed with every thrust. Jack moaned loudly with every snap of Gabe’s hips, bracing his hands above the bed to try and hold them both steady. He jerked violently as Gabe’s mouth migrated down his neck and chest until he wrapped his lips around one of his pert nipples and teased it with his teeth.

Gabe sunk deep into Jack, shifting his position until he knew he’d found Jack’s prostate from a particularly loud moan. He held Jack behind the knees and hooked them over his shoulders, the better angle letting him get even deeper in Jack. Sweat built on his skin as he bent Jack in half and made him whimper, getting his mouth back around one of those nipples.

“Gonna come without me touching your cock?” Gabe asked with a grunt, pounding into Jack’s sweet spot relentlessly, knowing his partner was likely beyond words by that point and getting just a fucked-out cry in response, which Gabe took as an affirmative.

Gabe was close himself, worked up from spending so long getting Jack ready for him, his ass like a vice around Gabe’s throbbing cock. Jack let go of the headboard with one hand, catching Gabe around the back of his head and dragging him up for a kiss, even though Gabe was moving them too fast and they were too breathless to be at all coordinated.

“Please.” Jack begged, the word sounding punched out of him as Gabe kept up his relentless pace, Jack’s cock leaking pre freely on his abs.

“What do you need?” Gabe panted out, bracing his hands on either side of Jack’s head to gain more leverage to snap his hips with.

“I don’t know.” Jack whined, letting out cute little high pitched breathy moans with every one of Gabe’s thrusts.

“Want me to fill you up with my come?” Gabe teased, grinding his cock against Jack’s prostate every time he fucked into Jack.

“Yes!” Jack gasped, the word petering into another moan as Gabe nailed his prostate again, mouth moving back to play with Jack’s sensitive nipples.

“Then you gotta come first Jackie. Go on, come for me.” Gabe ordered.Jack cried out, body going tight before releasing violently, come shooting out of his cock and almost hitting Gabe’s chin where he was still sucking on Jack’s nipple, ass clenching hard around Gabe’s cock. “Fuck, Jackie.” Gabe groaned, hips stuttering and managing only a few more thrusts into Jack’s clenching ass before emptying himself too, moving his hips slowly to fuck them both through the aftershocks.

Jack was a twitching mess beneath him, and Gabe felt a smug smile cross his face. He forced himself to find the energy not to just collapse so that he could lean down and press kisses to Jack’s blissed out face. He considered settling down beside Jack and not pulling out for a while; Jack liked that sometimes. But he had a feeling they were both going to pass out till morning, and being stuck together with dried spunk wasn’t his idea of a good time. So instead, and a little begrudgingly, Gabe carefully pulled out of Jack, kissing him softly when he made a protesting noise.

Gabe willed his legs to work and padded to their new bathroom, finding one of the washcloths and running warm water over it before returning to Jack and carefully cleaning him off, leaving Jack smiling and humming contentedly. He reached out with needy grabby hands to Gabe. Gabe gave himself a quick wipe down, tossed the cloth, and pulled back the soiled sheet manoeuvring a complaining, sleepy Jack. He found a spare, tugging it over the pair of them as he settled down next to Jack.

“I love you.” Jack murmured as he snuggled into Gabe’s side.

“I love you too.”

“I hope they never finish the rooms.” Jack sighed, cuddling into Gabe’s side, his eyes closed, body flushed and smiling, and Gabe had to agree.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are treasured as always <3 Next chapter will be on Sunday, but until then, come say hi on [tumblr!](http://shadyanne.tumblr.com/)


	4. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been pointed out to me by a couple of peeps that Angela wasn't in the original strike team, so I will be editing her out of chapter 3, pretend she was never there :') and curse bliz for not just giving me a damn timeline :') 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

 

It had been Lena’s idea, as most things like this usually were. Once she had managed to get Reinhardt on her side (which really hadn’t been difficult) the rest of them really hadn’t stood a chance. She was calling it a holiday and had dragged half of Overwatch’s core strike team and a few Blackwatch agents out to some beach in Cornwall.

She’d got it past the higher ups by training a pair of puppy dog eyes on Jack and making him do it for her. Jack hadn’t wanted to go; he had far too much to do, he was stressed all the time and holidays just weren’t the kind of luxury he was afforded. But Jack had seen through her declarations of the team needing a break and into what she was really doing.

She was trying to take their minds off Gérard and Amélie, and Jack couldn’t find it in himself to begrudge her that.

So he’d gone to the suits and told them he thought the team needed a vacation, that they’d take their personal gear with them so that if they were needed they could be ready to go before the jet reached them.

Jack had tried to beg out of the trip. He had things he needed to get through – like finding out just  _ how _ Talon had got their claws so deep into Amélie without any of them even noticing, and seeing if there was anything they could do to help her. But Lena was having none of it, insisting that it was only for the weekend, and him being there would lift everyone’s spirits.

He lost the battle when Lena told him to stop being so selfish, asked him if he’d even checked in with Ana since it happened. He had, of course, so he knew she wasn’t doing well. She’d lost a friend and her protégé in Gérard and Amélie, blamed herself for it like all good officers do. If Lena had convinced Ana to go, then Jack would go too, just in case it helped.

There was one thing he hadn’t counted on though, as he stepped onto the carrier Lena was flying them to Cornwall in and saw Gabe lounging in one of the seats. Jack worried at his lip, wondering whether he should sit down next to him like everyone would expect, but then Gabe caught his eye and looked at him coolly and Jack tried not to look like he was running away as he ducked into the cockpit with Lena.

“Hey Jack!” Lena greeted, zipping around the spacious cockpit, doing her pre-flight checks, before turning on the comms. “Hello everyone, and thank you for flying AirTracer!” She giggled. Jack could feel the fond eye-rolls for the main hold. “Your flight today is approximately two hours long, so hold tight and get ready for take-off.”

Jack sat in the co-pilot’s chair as Lena started the engines, watching her work as she drove the carrier through a seamless take off, before putting it into autopilot and swivelling to face Jack.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing really, just wondering how you convinced Gabe to come along.”

“I don’t know, Jesse’s the one who managed it, but it’s good right?” Lena beamed at him, fiddling with switches and dials on the control panel in front of her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, a little holiday for you two can’t be a bad thing, can it luv?” Lena smiled at him, “I know you hardly get any time together, what with you both being so busy all the time. It’s gotta be hard on you.”

It wasn’t Lena’s fault. She didn’t know they were fighting, no one did. Neither of them liked airing the finer details of their relationship in public, so they were hardly broadcasting to the whole of Overwatch that they weren’t exactly a poster for relationship bliss right now.    

The truth was, Jack didn’t know if they were just fighting, or if they had broken up, and it scared him. It scared him more than the injections had, more than the war had, more than facing down a bastion unit ever could. The idea that he’d never get to have Gabe’s arms around him again, that he’d never hear Gabe’s voice calling him sweet things in a language he didn’t understand again, that he’d never be teased about his flat ass or called sunshine or kissed awake by bad morning breath ever again. It terrified him.

He hadn’t talked it out with Gabe, hadn’t even tried to get clarification, because he feared what the answer might be.

And all for what? A promotion that Jack didn’t want anymore, but that he knew Gabe would never touch now.

But none of that was Lena’s fault.

“Yeah.” was all Jack managed to reply with, swallowing down all of his own worries and forcing himself to smile at Lena.

Jack hid out in the cockpit with Lena for the duration of the flight, under the guise of getting some last minute work done in relative peace. In truth he just sat there staring at his data pad, worrying about his relationship with Gabe.

Two hours later they touched down near enough to the hotel Lena had booked for them all that it was only a short walk to get there. Jack walking up front with Lena, Gabe hanging out the back with Jesse and Ana. It felt awkward and obvious to Jack that there was something wrong, but nobody else seemed to have noticed.

“Room assignments!” Lena chirped when she had checked them all in and received a stack of keycards from the receptionist. “Thank me later.” She then winked, passing Jack his cardkey and shoving him on his way, making him instantly nervous about what exactly he should be thanking her for.

He got his answer when he was halfway through sorting through his bag and heard another keycard opening the door.

They stared at each other for a few tense moments, Jack froze to the spot, Gabe looking like he was considering turning right back around again. The moment finally broken when Gabe grunted and stepped in, shutting the door behind himself roughly.

“Well that’s just perfect.” Gabe muttered, mostly to himself, but he made no attempt to be quiet enough to avoid Jack’s ears. It made Jack bite down on what he had been gathering the courage to say; that he’d missed him, that he was sorry, that he felt lost without Gabe beside him.

“I’ll take the couch.” Jack said quietly instead. They were lucky the room had a couch, really, though it was more of a loveseat and Jack would have to curl up to fit on it.

Gabe didn’t say anything, just threw his bag on the bed and left the room again without a word, making the knot in Jack’s gut twist and grow uncomfortably.

Lena had booked somewhere for them all to have dinner; apparently she used to come to this part of Cornwall with her family and knew all the best spots. The food was good, but Jack hardly noticed, too busy stealing glances at Gabe who was pointedly not looking at him at all. Reinhardt, Lena and Jesse talked enough for everyone, so Jack and Gabe’s silence went unnoticed, though he knew Ana at least had caught the fact that they weren’t sitting together, weren’t even looking at each other. Angela had probably noticed as well. Thankfully neither of them said anything.

As they all headed back to the hotel for the night, Lena declared that tomorrow was going to be a beach day, and that they better all be ready and in the lobby by ten or she was going to physically manhandle people out of their rooms. A scary image, but Jack imagined both he and Gabe were going to be leaving their room much earlier than ten.  

Jack noticed Gabe peel off into the hotel bar with Jesse – elated that the drinking age was eighteen in England, not twenty one – instead of coming up to the room, probably hoping Jack would be asleep by the time he came up. Jack knew he wouldn’t be. He hadn’t been sleeping well lately, not since this fight with Gabriel had started anyway, but he would pretend to be.

Jack found some spare sheets in the wardrobe and tossed them over the couch, making it feel a little more like a bed. Hopefully he’d be able to get some rest, even if sleep was no doubt going to elude him once more.

A couple of hours later Jack heard a stumbling outside his door, no doubt Gabe depositing a tipsy Jesse into his room for the night. Jack half wondered if Gabe would crash on the couch in Jesse’s room instead, he wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not when Gabe opened the door and slipped inside. He wasn’t drunk, it took entire bottles of whisky for either of them to feel alcohol nowadays, and Jack was sure Gabe was just stalling to avoid him anyway.

Jack kept his eyes shut and listened to the familiar sounds of Gabe toeing off his shoes and stripping down to his underwear to sleep, the soft thump of clothes hitting the floor one he was used to hearing when Gabe had had a later night than Jack, before crawling in to join him in their bed. But they weren’t sharing a bed anymore. It made the sounds that should have been comforting painful instead. A reminder of what they already seemed to have lost.

Gabe climbed into bed and Jack tried to find solace in his steady breaths, it was a sound Jack had missed. He could tell when Gabe fell asleep, breathing deeper, snoring just slightly, fidgeting ceasing completely. Jack wasn’t surprised he’d fallen asleep so quickly; he knew the Blackwatch Commander had only just finished a string of heavy night missions, he was probably still exhausted.

Jack listened to the familiar sound of Gabe sleeping for a while before it started to change, Gabe’s breathing less steady, his body starting to fidget. Jack didn’t worry about it at first, they all had restless nights sometimes. He wasn’t sure if Gabe would want him to try to help anyway.

But the minutes rolled by and Gabe got worse, Jack sitting up on the couch and wringing his hands together with indecision. Should he try to wake Gabe up? Try to comfort him? Or would he just want to be left alone? He’d never had nightmares before. Bad dreams sometimes, but never nightmares that left him tossing and turning, sweating and calling out indecipherable words.

It continued to get worse, Jack hovering by the bedside now, unsure what to do, if his help would be welcome. Gabe was sweaty, face screwed up in fear, his breathing ragged, mumbling  _ no no no _ under his breath. Jack’s decision was made for him as Gabe started to hyperventilate, hands clawing at his own throat, gasping out a wretched  _ Jack _ .

“Gabe, Gabi wake up, it’s me, it’s Jack. It’s just a nightmare, it’s okay, wake up.” Jack started whispering urgently, taking Gabe’s hands and pulling them away from Gabe’s neck as gently as he could. Jack held Gabe’s hands tightly in one of his own and cupping Gabe’s face with the other. “It’s okay, wake up, Gabe.”

Gabe jolted awake despite Jack’s attempts to pull him gently from the dream. His eyes stared up at Jack wildly and Gabe grabbed at him, forcing him down onto the bed and spinning to crouch above him, one hand wrapped around his throat, eyes looking but not really seeing.

“Gabi it’s me, it’s Jack, it’s okay.” Jack said carefully, hands where Gabe could see them, afraid of spooking him before he came back to himself. There was a tense second, but then the spell over Gabe seemed to shatter. He drew in a ragged breath and collapsed down next to Jack.

“Fuck, Jack, I’m sorry.” Gabe said, Jack was so relieved to feel Gabe next to him, not pushing him away, that he couldn’t even bring himself to care that one of Gabe’s hands had been around his throat just a moment ago, that he seemed to have slipped into some kind of fugue state from his dream.

“I – I’m sorry.” Jack had been going to say it was okay, but the apology spilled past his lips instead, tears welling up in his eyes as all of his emotions about their fight rushed to the surface.

“What? Jack, I’m the one that’s sorry. Fuck, I just had my hand around your throat, what was I even –”

“No.” Jack cried out. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry about it all, I’m sorry about taking the promotion when I knew it should have been yours. I’m sorry about hurting you like that. I’m sorry for not being on your side because I was selfish. I’m sorry about not trying to talk to you sooner. I’m – I’m just sorry.”

“Jack I – ”

“I miss you. God, so much Gabe, I miss you so much. Please forgive me. I love you. Fuck, please don’t leave me, I can’t – ” Jack begged, turning himself into Gabe’s chest, wanting to burying himself in his familiar scent, never wanting to let go.

“Fuck, cariño, I’m sorry too.” Gabe cooed, drawing Jack closer, running a hand through Jack’s hair in the way he always had done and making Jack cling to the sensation, to Gabe. “I shouldn’t have just shut you out like that. We’ve both been idiots.”

“You aren’t leaving me, are you?” Jack asked quietly, still afraid of the answer.

“Jackie, I wouldn’t know how to leave you. I love you too much.” Gabe said, pressing a kiss to Jack’s temple, anchoring Jack down with his arms and his words. Jack felt lighter than he had in weeks, months even.

“Sorry.” Jack took a steadying breath. “Making this about myself like an asshole. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, it was just a dream.” Gabe said, before pausing and seeming to steel himself. “No. No more not talking. I’m not okay. I’ve been having these dreams for weeks and they’re not normal. At first they were, but now they’re different.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, running his fingertips down Gabe’s cheek, cupping his face and running his thumb under Gabe’s eye, as if he could wipe away the tiredness there.

“They’re about the crisis. At first they were pretty standard. We were back there, you’d die and I couldn’t save you. Horrible, but standard.”

“But they changed?” Jack pressed, Gabe gathering himself to go on.

“Yeah. It’s the crisis still, war zones, massacres, me and you. But there’s this insidious buzzing, it just gets louder and louder the longer the dream goes on, it’s maddening, and there’s this voice in it and it – it – ” Gabe took a shuddering breath, caught between wanting to be honest and not wanting to say it.

“It’s okay Gabe, you can tell me, maybe I can help. We can do it together.” Jack assured, trying not to let his own worry show, kissing Gabe’s cheek, waiting patiently as Gabe finds the strength to say whatever it is.

“It tells me to kill you.” Gabe whispered before ploughing on. “I never would Jackie, not in the dream, not anywhere, not ever. I don’t know why it says it, I don’t understand. I feel sick every morning just from hearing it. I know I’ve been mad at you but I was always going to forgive you, I love you. But then these dreams came and they, they  _ scared _ me Jackie. Made me think I shouldn’t be around you, that I was hurting you somehow just because of these nightmares and I didn’t know what to do.”

Jack was shaken, but it didn’t matter because Gabe looked  _ wrecked _ , not bothering to hide that this had been eating him alive for weeks anymore. Jack knew Gabe would never hurt him, even if they were fighting, even if they broke up, he was sure of it. He didn’t know what was causing these nightmare’s, but he knew Gabe.

“Hey, it’s okay. I know you’d never hurt me Gabi, I know that.” Jack murmured, stroking Gabe’s short curls back from his forehead. “Whatever this is, we’ll deal with it. We can talk to Angela when we get back, see what she thinks, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Gabe agreed, and the ease at which he agreed to go to the doc told Jack just how shaken Gabe was. Usually he fought tooth and nail against going to the infirmary, even if he had a bullet in his arm. “You know it’s funny, I only agreed to come down here because Jesse was threatening to tell Angela I had been screaming myself awake every night, and I just agreed to go anyway. You’ve always been good for me, sunshine.” Gabe said. Jack mentally cursed Jesse for not just telling him about Gabe straight away, but then, this had probably been his plan anyway. The kid was slyer than any of them gave him credit for.

“And you, me.” Jack replied, tucking himself closer into Gabe, knowing they both needed the intimacy.

“The nightmare’s didn’t start till you stopped sleeping next to me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“My fault as much as yours.” Gabe said, and Jack disagreed. This mess had been his fault, not Gabe’s. He hadn’t even noticed what Gabe was going through until tonight. It was his fault, but he didn’t want to argue about it now. “You’re here now.” Gabe breathed, both of them finding solace in the simple closeness they’d been missing.

They fell asleep tangled together like they always used to. Gabe didn’t have another nightmare and they slept past dawn, both reluctant to leave their nest so soon after they’d found it again. The quietness of the small hotel was exactly what the two of them needed right now.

_ Excuse us from the activities today and I’ll keep you off mess duty for a month, _ Jack sent to Lena at five to ten that morning. He was unwilling to leave the warm embrace of their bed, Gabe tracing sleepy patterns against his back and kissing his hip.

“Abusing your authority?” Gabe teased.

“Only for a good cause.” Jack smiled, letting Gabe pull him back down and roll them over in the bed.

It had been a long time since either of them had slept so well.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, comments and kudos are love <3


	5. 5

 

Things were bad. Gabe knew that, and the fact that Jack refused to see it was driving him mad. He kept insisting blindly that everything was going to be okay, that so long as they stuck together they could conquer anything.

But something was ripping Overwatch apart from the inside and Jack couldn’t see it. Or maybe he could, he just didn’t know how to face it. Didn’t matter. The end result was the same.

Agents were dying left and right, Overwatch and Blackwatch, missions were compromised before they even begun, the public was turning on them, Talon was beating them. Gabe knew Talon must have an inside man, there was no other way they could know Overwatch’s moves before they even made them. But no matter how hard Gabe searched he couldn’t find the traitor.

Jack had taken that as a good thing, decided it meant that there wasn’t a traitor after all as Gabe’s searches were notoriously thorough. Gabe knew Jack was being naïve. There was a rat, whoever it was was just good at hiding. Gabe thought back to Amélie, to  _ Widowmaker _ , wondered if Talon’s inside agent even knew what they were doing. Didn’t matter. They needed to be eliminated, whoever they were.

Ana was dead, Widowmaker took her out. Jesse had disappeared and Gabe couldn’t spare the manpower to find him. Genji had left, Mei gone silent, Angela was tired and fought more and more with her orders. Countless recruits were dead, half of Blackwatch. They had more failures than successes now.

Jack almost died last week on a mission. Talon had been ready, waiting, targeting Overwatch’s precious Strike Commander. The glass in Gabe’s hand shattered in his grip. He hadn’t noticed he was holding it that hard. He had to find the mole before Talon got to Jack.

“Shit, Gabe, be careful.” Jack scolded, coming over with a cloth and checking Gabe’s hand for cuts. In truth it hadn’t even hurt, but Gabe let him check him over anyway. Things were tense between them these days. He didn’t want to make it worse, didn’t want to push Jack away any more than he already had.

He just needed Jack to help him, to take a look at reality for once and accept that they had a traitor in their midst.

“You didn’t sleep here last night.” Jack said, aiming for casual.

“Didn’t sleep anywhere, Blackwatch business.” Gabe grunted, a lie. He’d slept in one of the numerous empty rooms.

“I feel like we’ve not managed to sleep in the same bed for months.” Jack huffed out. Gabe tugged him down and kissed him gently, trying to soothe him a little.

“Just been busy.” Another lie, and it had been longer, really, because Gabe only shared Jack’s bed now when he was sure he wouldn’t fall asleep.

His nightmare’s had got worse, not better, no matter how Angela tried to help. But it had been worrying Jack, painting new lines around his eyes, and Gabe knew he didn’t need the added stress. It had been frustrating Gabe as well. Angela’s treatments weren’t working, so he just wanted to be left alone to deal with it. They were only nightmares. He hated them, they made him feel sick, but they couldn’t hurt him.

So he had told Jack they’d gone away, that Angela’s latest concoction had worked. Jack and Angela had been tired and desperate enough to simply be relieved instead of suspicious. When he needed to sleep Gabe did it away from Jack so he didn’t know they were worse than ever. He didn’t tell Jack that sometimes they seeped into his waking hours, painting the walls red and whispering in his ears.

He was gentle with Jack, as if he could make up for what his nightmares whispered for him to do.

He blacked out during the day sometimes. He put it down to sleep deprivation, though once or twice he’d woken up in different places. It was disconcerting, to have blank spaces in his memory, but he didn’t linger on it. They had bigger problems than his inability to get restful sleep.

“You accessed the central intelligence core again yesterday.” Jack said, going for casual again. Gabe’s eyes tracked him as he started pulling his stealth mission clothes out of their shared closet.

“Still looking for the mole.” Gabe grunted. He hadn’t been on yesterday, he didn’t think, he couldn’t really remember, time was stretching and stopping at strange times. He probably just didn’t remember. “Where are you going?”

“Quiet mission. Infiltrating that facility in Annecy, where we think Widowmaker operates from. Hopefully there will be some leads to Talon.” Jack explained. It had probably been explained at this morning’s briefing, but Gabe had missed it. He couldn’t really remember what he had been doing, though.

He needed to get more sleep.

“Who’s going with you?”

“Johnson and Mayer.”

“Fuck no.” Gabe growled in response, though he wasn’t sure what an acceptable answer would have been. The only two people in this organisation that he allowed himself to trust nowadays were in this room.

“I can’t go alone, and we can’t spare anyone else, you know how thin we are right now.”

“I’m going with you.” Gabe announced. It wasn’t a suggestion. He stood to get his own gear out the wardrobe.

“Don’t be silly Gabe, I know you’re busy, too. And since Je- well, there’s no one who can run Blackwatch in your stead right now.” Jack reasoned, catching Gabe’s arms and trying to pull him close. It hurt to think about Jesse, made his vision turn red and the buzzing grow louder. Gabe pushed the intrusive thoughts of Jesse dead in some ditch down roughly.  

“I don’t care.”

“I’ll be fine, Gabi.” Jack tried to soothe him, holding his face in calloused hands and resting their foreheads together, but it didn’t distract Gabe from the way the walls were bleeding, the way he’d make the whole  _ world _ bleed if anything happened to Jack.

“Yeah, you will, because I’m going to make fucking sure of it.”

“Gabe – ”

“No! I’m not losing you, Jackie. I know you don’t want to believe it, but someone is selling us out to Talon. They know where we’re going before we do, so if you think I’m letting you go  _ anywhere near them _ by yourself then you’re a fucking idiot.” Gabe shouted. He hadn’t realised he was shouting until he saw how startled Jack was. He never shouted at Jack. It scared himself. “Sorry Jackie,” Gabe deflated, shoulders slumping, “I just can’t lose you.”

“Okay, it’s okay. We can go together.” Jack said quietly, carefully, holding Gabe in his arms.

They didn’t talk about it, just put it down to stress, tiredness, worry, like they always did.

They left together that evening, one look from Gabe silencing any protests anyone might have had to both their commanders leaving. They were taking a civilian plane over to France, more inconspicuous for this kind of mission. Jack slept on his shoulder the whole way, drooling on his sleeve and fixing something in Gabe’s heart. His snores drowned out the buzzing, even if only for a little while.

The plane landed and they rented a hovercar, driving the rest of the way to Annecy, stopping a few miles out to finish the journey on foot.

“We’ve got four hours till sunrise; we want to be out by then.”

“If we don’t find anything then we get out.” Gabe agreed, prepared to throw Jack over his shoulder and force him out if it came to that. They did not want to get caught.

They made their way to the base in silence. It looked for all the world like nothing more than a sweet little house on the outskirts of a sweet little French town. Probably because it had once been Gérard and Amélie’s sweet little home. Gabe tried not to think about it, how they were having Widowmaker operate out of her old home, not recognising herself in the pictures hung around the house.

The house was eerie, the base must be beneath the foundations, a realisation they both came to at the same time. They cleared the house, nothing of use in the above ground floors. No one lying in wait to grab them, either. Promising so far, but too easy. Jack found the well hidden door leading down to the real base, and they climbed down carefully.

Jack rounded a corner and Gabe grabbed him, hauling him back, somehow knowing that a reign of bullets was going to shoot down on him, but none came. Gabe shoved Jack behind him and looked around himself. No turret, but the base of where one had stood until recently.  _ How had he known one would be there? _ Instinct, just instinct, he’d been running operations like this for years now.

_ Something’s wrong _ he mouthed at Jack, who nodded. Something wasn’t adding up. They expected the base to be operational, to have to sneak to get what they needed. Gabe was starting to realise that there was no one here.

He was right. They went deeper and deeper, finding empty bunks and abandoned work stations, but no people.

It looked like Talon had cleared out in a hurry. But that made no sense, if they knew they were coming then they knew there were only two of them. Why wouldn’t they just kill them? It made Gabe uneasy, something wasn’t right. They had the commanders of Overwatch and Blackwatch within their reach, and they’d just  _ left _ .

_ A trap? _ Jack mouthed at him. Gabe shook his head; he didn’t know what was going on, but Talon wasn’t here, he knew it.

Jack scoured a computer. The hard drive was wiped except for one single entry.

**Project Reaper**

**Status: Sleeper**

**Sensitivity: High**

**Asset: Invaluable**

**Activation Date: Soon**

They stared at the screen, it felt like it had been left for them. It felt like a threat. The buzzing behind Gabe’s eyes flared up again.

“We can’t take it with us.” Jack said, gesturing to the computer. He was right, of course, even though they both wanted to get the lab on it. But it had been so clearly left for them they couldn’t trust it. It could be a bomb, a tracker to find the Swiss Base, anything.

They did one final sweep before leaving. They found their car and drove it back to the airport, getting a coach out of France into Germany, taking a long, convoluted route back to Switzerland, both of them unnerved by the empty base they had found.

Talon had known they were coming, and had run instead of taking them down.

They went to one of the safe houses in Germany, Gabe offering to take watch. He wouldn’t be able to actually sleep with Jack there anyway, not unless he wanted Jack to know that his nightmares now screamed at him and the walls bled when he was wide awake and the buzzing never stopped.

“They knew we were coming.” Jack said, settling onto the covers of the creaky motel bed.

“Yeah.” Gabe agreed, settling into the uncomfortable armchair.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“None of it does.”

“Come here?” Jack asked holding his hand out of Gabe, reaching for him.

“I need to stay awake on watch, Jackie.”

“It’s a safehouse, Athena is on watch. I want you to hold me.” Jack said quietly. Gabe heard the undertone,  _ I’m scared _ , he didn’t know how to say no to it.  

Gabe stood and settled in behind Jack, pulling him close to his chest and trying to comfort him.

“What do you think project Reaper is?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know.” Gabe answered, unable to really concentrate as the name rattled around in his head, hissing at him from every corner of his mind in the same voice that whispered to him to kill Jack in his dreams. He viciously pushed it away, buried his face in Jack’s hair in an attempt to silence it.

“I think you’re right. About the mole. The file said ‘sleeper’.” Jack said, Gabe knew he was worrying his lip with his teeth, even though he couldn’t see.

“Maybe.” Gabe agreed, sure that Jack was right, but it didn’t help him find the traitor either. “But they’d left that file for us to find, they might just be messing with us.” Gabe said, trying to comfort, even though neither of them believed it was an empty threat by Talon. Gabe could feel that project Reaper was real, he just had to find them.

“But  _ why _ .”

“I don’t know, Jackie.” Gabe said, kissing the back of Jack’s shoulder lightly.

“It said ‘soon’.”

“I know, Jackie.” Gabe held him tighter, feeling the fear in Jack.

There was a stretch of silence between them. Gabe half thought Jack had managed to fall asleep, but then Jack spoke, so quietly he almost missed it.

“I know you still have the nightmares.” Jack whispered and Gabe tensed, he hadn’t wanted Jack to know, hadn’t wanted Jack to worry.

“I’m sorry.” It was the only thing he could think to say.

“I wish you’d talk to me.”

Gabe wished he could too, but he didn’t know how to anymore. How to tell Jack that he was falling apart as well, one more thing Jack would break himself trying to fix. Gabe couldn’t do that to him.

“I wish you’d still hold me through the night, not leave me alone because you’re worried I’ll find out.”

“I’ll hold you tonight.”

“We’ll find something to help you. I promise.”

“It’s okay, Jackie, I’m okay.” Gabe hushed gently, arm wrapped possessively around Jack’s middle.

“Promise me we’ll talk about it. That you’ll really talk to me about it when we get home.” Jack pleaded. Gabe could hear the tears in Jack’s eyes, he’d ended up worrying him anyway and cursed himself for it. He’d ended up hurting him even though he swore he never would.

“I promise.” If Jack needed to try and fix it to feel better, then Gabe would let him try, so he promised, and he meant it.

Jack slept soundly in his arms that night. Gabe fought against the nightmares even though he was wide awake.

But things were worse when they got back. Jack was busy fighting back the suits and the press so much so that they almost didn’t notice how quiet Talon had been. Gabe didn’t take it as a blessing, he knew they must be planning something and worked what was left of Blackwatch hard to try and find out what it was.

They didn’t get time to talk, didn’t get time to try and help him, didn’t get time to silence the buzzing or stop the walls bleeding or the insidious voice in his head telling him to kill Jack, didn’t get time to wonder why  _ Reaper _ rattled around in Gabe’s head like a loose wire.

And soon enough,  _ soon _ came around, and there was no helping Gabe anymore.

There was no Gabe anymore.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the chapter <3 the final one will be up on Sunday! 
> 
> Also, fun fact: this chapter means I've published over 1 million words on Ao3, someone help me :')


	6. +1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's a day late, I completely forgot about it :') but here it is now! I hope you enjoy this last chapter <3

76 was tired. There wasn’t really anything else to say about it. It seeped into his bones.

He told himself he was still fighting for a cause, for something bigger than himself, that that was why he had re-joined Overwatch. Really he just didn’t know what else to do, so he fell back into the only thing he’d ever been good at.

It hadn’t taken Overwatch long to work out who he was, but most of them were smart enough not to call him Jack anymore. He didn’t want to be Jack Morrison anymore. Jack Morrison was dead, and he had no desire to resurrect him. The man who had failed, lost everything, who had let down the only person he’d ever loved. He hadn’t wanted to be Jack Morrison in years.

Three days ago that had changed.

Three days ago Hana and Lucio had cheered as they brought Reaper into the cells. Talon’s mercenary, the scourge of Overwatch, finally caught, awaiting justice. They hadn’t understood the quiet that washed over McCree who knew that was his once mentor, or the silent tears that Fareeha shed over the man who held her tight when her mother was pronounced dead. They didn’t know why Reinhardt and Tracer had grown disconcertingly solemn, or the reason for Ana’s withdrawal, or the guilt that riddled Angela’s face.

They didn’t understand because they had not been there; they’d never known Gabriel, only Reaper.

76 didn’t even know if anyone had told them who Reaper was, who he had been. He supposed it hardly mattered - Reaper had been hunting old Overwatch members with Talon, had attacked Winston, almost destroyed Athena. It hardly mattered because no matter how melancholy the rest of them were, they still believed Reaper was beyond help, that there was no redemption for him, that there was nothing of Gabriel Reyes left.

76 couldn’t believe that, he wouldn’t.

Three days ago Reaper had been brought in and for the first time in years, he wanted to be Jack Morrison again.

He was tired. Tired of fighting, tired of the guilt, tired of running, tired of missing Gabriel.

“I’ll take watch tonight.” He grunted, stepping into the control room, screens showing the live security footage of Reaper in his cell. He hadn’t taken off his mask, but then, neither had Jack.

“Are you sure?” Angela asked, biting her lip, she looked exhausted. “Everyone understands if you just want to keep your distance.” She reassured, but he knew she would relent, she looked bone tired.

None of them knew what had really happened, what Jack at least believed had happened. That Talon had dug their claws into Gabriel, just like Amélie, and once again, none of them had noticed. Jack hadn’t noticed. One final failure. He hadn’t told them, hadn’t wanted to think about it, it hadn’t mattered until now.

“It’s fine. Get some rest.” Jack ordered. They all seemed to still do as he said, even though he wasn’t their commander any more.

“Thank you.” She sighed, rubbing at her eyes and standing slowly. She paused when she reached the door, like she was considering whether or not she should speak. “I know it is hard, but that man, he isn’t Gabriel.”

Jack only grunted in response. She was wrong, she had to be. He wanted her to leave.

“I know this is my fault, I’m so sorry Jack.” She left wiping tears from her eyes. It was the first time she had called him Jack in a long time, and the first time since the explosion that he hadn’t minded it.

She’d told him when they had worked out who Reaper was, came to him in floods of tears and told him what she’d done. The chaos after the explosion, so many of them dead, Angela crawling through the wreckage desperately trying to help someone, someone who wasn’t already lost. She hadn’t known yet who had caused the explosion. Hope and light were fading out of the day, the rescue teams shifting more rubble and revealing a broken body of Gabriel Reyes, another one of her friends.

She’d acted on grief alone, hopelessly using her staff to try and resurrect him, even though she knew he had been gone too long, knew it was dangerous. She had thought she’d failed, Gabriel’s body covered and lined up with the rest of the dead. But by the next morning, his body was gone. She hadn’t connected the dots herself until Overwatch realised who Reaper was.

Jack had known for longer.  _ Project Reaper _ . He had seen Gabriel become Reaper in front of his eyes. Saw him bring a building down on his head.  _ Kill Jack Morrison _ . But he should have seen it sooner, none of what happened was Angela’ fault, it was his own.

Maybe the guilt was what made him so tired.

He waited a while after Angela left, waited patiently until everyone would be safely in their beds.

“Athena, is everyone asleep?” Jack asked the AI.

“Everyone except Jesse.” She replied politely. Jack wasn’t worried about McCree, he was an insomniac, always had been, but was avoiding the control room and cells at the moment. Just like everyone had expected Jack to. 

“You can go into rest mode for the night.” Jack instructed. Athena usually partially powered down during the night, Winston wanting to make sure she didn’t overload herself while they were still checking for residual damage from Reaper’s last attack. Her tertiary systems kept watch of the perimeter and only woke her if something disturbed it. But for the last three days, he knew she had been kept on, monitoring Reaper constantly, making sure he couldn’t ghost away.

“I have been instructed to monitor the prisoner at all times.”

“I’ll do it manually from here. You need to power down for a little while.”

“A compromise; I will enter rest mode for three hours only and you will wake me if anything happens.”

“Alright.” Jack agreed. It wasn’t what he had wanted, but he didn’t want the AI to sense that something was wrong.

“Thank you, Soldier: 76.”

Jack waited until the sounds of Athena partially shutting down died off, signalling that she was in whatever kind of sleep AI units went into. He glanced up at one of the screens; Gabriel was lying in his cell, mask still on his face, staring up at the ceiling.

Jack stood and pushed the door open, quietly shutting it behind himself and heading down to the cells, not looking back. He knew what he was doing was stupid. That day at the Swiss Base, Gabriel had barely even recognised him, and there was no reason to believe it would be any different now. They’d tried to kill each other in battle more than once, but for two super soldiers, they had also missed a lot when firing at each other. It was enough to give Jack a stupid frisson of hope.

He checked that the room containing the holding cells was empty before entering, approaching the one on the end, specially modified to hold Reaper. Reaper wouldn’t know he was standing there, the cell blocked out all outside noise, all light, everything. Jack took a steadying breath and punched in his security code. It worked; why wouldn’t it? His team trusted him, after all.

Jack knew Reaper might kill him, but the thought settled in him with startling tranquillity. If this was how he died, then so be it.

The door slid open, and Jack stepped inside.

“It was foolish of you to come in here.” Reaper’s voice growled, low and gravelly, a destroyed version of Gabriel Reyes’ voice.

“Yeah, well, you always did call me stupid.” Jack sighed, taking the fact he hadn’t been instantly killed as a good sign.

The door slid closed again and the artificial light in the cell came on. Jack wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but Reaper sat in the corner of his small bed, back against the wall and knees pulled up to his chest, was not it.

“You need to leave, Jack.”

“I can’t.”

“You have to! I don’t trust myself.”

“I trust you.”

“Pendejo.” Gabe spat at the floor, but the name washed over Jack like a warm balm. “After everything I’ve done, you think I can be trusted.”

“You could have killed me the second I walked into this cell, could have gotten out. Why didn’t you?” Jack asked, watching as Gabriel visibly slumped, shoulder sagging, arms going loose, as if the fight left him.

“Because it was you that walked into the cell.”

“Gabriel I – ”

“Don’t say it.”

“I want to.”

“After everything I’ve done – ” Gabriel trailed off, shaking his head at the floor, not looking up at Jack anymore, it gave Jack the strength to cross the distance of the cell to stand in front of him.

Gabriel startled when Jack reached up and gently cupped his face, but he didn’t pull away.

“Will you take off your mask?” Jack asked, overwhelmed with the need to see Gabriel’s face again. It had been too long.

“You don’t want that.”

“Please, I do. I want to see you.”

“I do not look the same Jack, I am changed,  _ changing _ , constantly. I am a monster.”

“You never could be to me. You never were.”

“Not even when I brought a building down around you?” Gabriel growled, self-hatred dripping from every word.

“That wasn’t you, I know it wasn’t. But no, not even then. All I saw was everything I’d missed. How I’d failed the one person who mattered to me in the end.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Jackie.” The old nickname felt like it could swallow him whole. Jack smiled under his mask, lifting a hand up to cup the back of Gabriel’s head, his hood still up.

“Please,” Jack asked, bringing his hands up to the sides of Gabriel’s face, not moving the mask until he got permission.

“Yours too.” Gabriel’s hands came up to Jack’s face hovering at the edges of his visor.

“Later.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to see you.”

“The visor…” Gabriel trailed off, realisation dawning on him.

“I can’t see well without it.” Jack told him. Without it shapes were hard to make out and the world was darker.

“When?” Gabriel asked, and Jack wished he hadn’t, but he wouldn’t lie, not after everything.

“The explosion.” Jack said quietly, Gabriel flinched away, Jack’s hands slipping to hold his shoulders before Gabriel could pull away entirely.

“I did that.” Smoke poured off Gabriel faster, losing control of his solid form in his distress.

“It wasn’t you.”

“Don’t be naive. Was my hands, my actions that did it, and my conscience that bears it.”

“It wasn’t you.”

“But I see it Jackie, through my own eyes. I can remember every last bit of it. I remember laying the charges with  _ my _ hands. I remember priming the detonator with  _ my hands _ . I remember waiting until the base was full. I – I remember waiting until you were back from your mission.  _ I _ remember it because it was  _ my _ hands that did it. How am I supposed to live with that?” Gabriel’s voice was small by the end, too small for a man like Gabriel. And the truth was, Jack didn’t know, he didn’t know how you got past something like that, how you lived with it and carried on, he didn’t know.

“We’ll find a way.”

“We?”

“I’m not leaving you Gabe, not again.” Jack promised, and Gabriel gave him the slightest nod.

Jack took the mask off carefully, he wasn’t even sure how it was held on, but it came off easily enough in his grasp.

Gabriel’s skin was a patchwork of rich brown and deathly grey, his eyes were red and unnatural. Dark mist rolled off of him in a constant wave, and nasty holes seemed to tear through his skin in places, leaving Jack able to see his jaw and bone.

But underneath all of it, it was still the face that Jack loved.

“I missed you, Gabi.” Jack sighed, stroking gently down the side of his wrecked face. Gabe relaxed a little as Jack showed no hesitation in touching him.

“You don’t think I’m a monster?”

“No.”

“Does this bit come off?” Gabe asked, fingers gentle against the mask covering Jack’s lower face.

“Not without the visor too.” Jack replied, frustration clear on Gabriel’s face.

“If you take it off, would you kiss me?”

“It’s the only thing that’s stopping me now.” Jack told him honestly, reaching up and unlatching his mask, slipping it off entirely.

“I did this, too.” Gabriel said quietly, fingers hesitantly tracing the scar that passed over his lips, before moving up to the nastier one scratching across his face. “And this.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because it doesn’t.” Jack repeated, reaching forward and bringing Gabe closer, looking up to the hazy dark shape that he knew was Gabe. “Please, I’ve missed you.”

Jack pressed forward even as Gabe stood stock still, frozen in place. But his sight betrayed him, unable to see more than vague outlines his kiss mostly missed Gabe’s mouth, landing only on the very corner of his lips. Jack kissed him there anyway, relief surging through him when Gabriel turned into the kiss and brought their mouths together properly.

Kissing Gabe was different than he remembered, it was sweeter, like Gabe was afraid of breaking him. His taste was different, something unpleasant and undefinably bitter, but that lay underneath a blanket of familiarity, so Jack didn’t care. Jack pushed back Gabriel’s hood. He could feel that he still had hair, and it seemed longer than it had before, but without his visor he couldn’t make out anything his hand’s didn’t tell him. Patches of it were coarse and patches were smooth, a combination of dead and alive just like his skin, just like everything about him now.

Jack pushed forward to bring his arms around Gabe and deepen their kiss. Gabe’s body was cold, a few degrees colder than a normal person should be, but he made Jack feel warmer than he had in years. Something in Gabe seemed to give in as Jack teased his tongue at the seam of Gabe’s lips, finally sinking fully into the kiss and into Jack’s embrace. Gabe lost his hesitation, and they started to kiss like they had never stopped.

Eventually Gabriel broke the kiss, sighing shakily and burrowing himself into Jack’s arms, tucking his face into the crook of Jack’s neck. They moved themselves over onto Gabe’s small, hard, cell bed, Jack resting mostly on Gabe’s chest to allow them both to fit. Gabe traced absentminded patterns over his back, the pair of them sharing intermittent kisses.

“Why 76?” Gabe asked when Jack took off his jacket to get more comfortable.

“It was my number, in the programme. Subject number 76.”

“I was number thirteen.” Gabe replied, and Jack snorted.

“You would be.”

“Why not just be Jack still?”

“I didn’t want to be,” Jack admitted, “I thought you were dead and most of the time, I wanted to be too. All I was good for was as a soldier, I didn’t want the team to know who I was. They found out, though, of course. I just, didn’t want to be Jack Morrison anymore. Didn’t want to be him ever again, until they brought you in three days ago. Then I wanted to be Jack again.”

“Why?”

“Because I still love you.”

“I love you too, Jackie. Shit, I love you so much I remembered you before I remembered me. The thought that I – that I almost – ” Gabriel’s chest shook, with fear, with anger, with self-hatred, with all three.

Jack used his hands to guide Gabe in to kiss him again. Grounding kisses had always been the fastest way to calm Gabriel down, and that held true now. His taloned gauntlets had been confiscated with his weapons, his big hands soft against Jack as they stroked through his hair and down his back. Their kisses were languid but heated, too many years lost between them for slowness. Gabe rolled the pair of them carefully, until Jack was beneath him, Gabriel straddling his legs and leaning down to kiss him more soundly with the better angle. Jack wished he were able to see him, but he wouldn’t give up being able to kiss him to have his sight back.

“Is this okay?” Gabriel asked, kissing over Jack’s gear, unable to get at his neck.

“Not quite.” Jack said, making Gabriel retreat upwards until Jack looped an arm around his back, keeping him in place. When he was sure Gabriel was going to stay put he used his hands to unlatch the rest of the gear around his face and neck, carefully putting it out of the way when it was free. He hadn’t been in his combat gear, just his visor to see and his jacket over his normal clothes, and Gabe had been stripped of his armour and belts. It was good, less between them, softer. “There, that’s better.” Jack said, settling back onto the hard bed. He couldn’t see, but he knew Gabriel was smiling at him.

Gabe ducked back down, lips pressing against Jack’s neck and kissing a trail down to his shoulder, pulling his shirt out of the way to get at Jack’s collar bone. Gabe apparently remembered how much Jack enjoyed being kissed there, as he sucked a mark into his skin.

Gabe leaned up to kiss him again, growing bolder and slipping his tongue into Jack’s mouth. Jack moaned at the long-lost feeling. His moan spurred Gabe on, tugging on Jack’s shirt until he pushed himself up enough to help get the offending garment off and toss it to the floor. Jack’s own hands pushed Gabriel’s cloak off of him and searched for the hem of his shirt. He pulled it up and off when he found it, frustrated that he couldn’t see Gabriel clearly.

Too make up for his lack of sight, Jack mapped out Gabriel’s chest with his hands, sliding his fingers and palms over every ridge and bump. He thought he could tell when he found one of the deathly grey patches of skin, feeling rougher beneath his hands. Gabriel’s cells were constantly forming, dying, and reforming at an unnatural rate. Jack wondered if the grey patches traveled across his skin, as one patch regenerated healthy tissue and the grey fell away, only for the cells to die in a different place on his body.

Gabriel was still kissing him, letting Jack’s hands roam over his back and relearn him. Jack wondered if Gabe was looking at him, wondered what he saw other than an old and broken soldier. Gabe pulled back to breathe and Jack caught his lower lip between his teeth, tugging him back down and lapping at his tongue. Gabriel responded readily, kissing him back with as much fervour, as much passion, but Jack caught him off guard as he rolled his hips up, pressing his clothed cock up against Gabe, humming contentedly when he felt his answering hardness.

Gabriel pulled back. Jack instinctively knew that he was looking at him, probably wondering if Jack was mad. Jack smiled coyly up at him. He doubted he was as good at coquettish smiles as he used to be, but it seemed they still worked on Gabe.

Gabriel dove back down onto him, kissing him furiously and grinding down against him. Jack moaned happily as he finally had some friction to press up against.

“Fuck Jackie, I think you’re fucking mad for taking me back but I’m never gonna leave your side again.” Gabe breathed into his ear, biting down on his neck, remembering the exact spot that made Jack’s toes curl.

Jack pushed his hands between them, fighting with the unfamiliar fastening on Gabe’s pants, but eventually getting them open. Gabe made a guttural noise as Jack slipped his hand in and pulled out his hard cock.

“ _ Jack _ .” Gabriel growled in his ear as he started to stroke his cock, the angle hard and awkward on his wrist, but not enough for Jack to consider stopping.

Jack turned his head, catching Gabriel’s cheek with his lips instead of his mouth, smiling as Gabe turned his head towards him so they could kiss properly again. Gabe worked a hand between them, impatiently working the fastenings on Jack’s pants and pulling his hard cock out through his open trousers.

Jack gasped as Gabriel wrapped a hand around them both, the feeling of Gabriel’s cock pressed against his own one he could never forget, but still better than he remembered. There was little finesse as Gabriel worked them together, kissing each other messily and rutting together as if they were back when they first became them.. Back when they were worried they might get caught, and everything was new, and they didn’t have the time or supplies for anything more.

Jack had missed him so much.

He bucked into Gabriel’s firm grip, his own fingers entwined with Gabriel’s as he set the pace. Jack was already chasing his end, and he knew by the way Gabriel was letting out hitched grunts that he was too; some things never changed.

“I’m close.” Jack panted between increasingly sloppy kisses.

“Me too.” Gabriel gasped, moving their joined hands faster, tightening his grip around them.

“ _ Gabi _ .” Jack choked off a moan as he came first, spilling between their hands and his own chest.

He stopped himself from going boneless like he wanted to, pushing Gabriel’s hand away and taking Gabriel’s cock back in his now messy hand. He remembered what he liked, remembered to squeeze tighter on the upstroke, to run his palm over the head, to press his own sensitive, softening cock up against Gabriel’s still hard one.

“Mi dios, mierda, Jackie, estoy viniendo. Te amo, mierda, te amo.” Gabriel panted out as he came, words broken off and muffled as he spoke them straight into Jack’s skin.

They collapsed together on the bed that was far too small, breathing heavily and nuzzling against each other, pressing sweet kisses wherever they could reach without moving. They came down quietly, tangled together, Gabe only moving to quickly wipe them down with the nearest shirt, before spooning back up close behind Jack.

They lay there silently for long, comfortable moments, just listening to the sound of each other breathing. The sound of each other alive.

“I didn’t know who I was, you know. After the explosion, after Angela did whatever it was she did. Didn’t know anything, everything was just... blank.” Gabe started quietly. Jack rubbed the arm around his waist soothingly and didn’t interrupt. “I woke up and I knew something wasn’t right. I was surrounded by dead bodies, all covered up and me in line with them. It spooked me and I ran. Stumbling around, remembering things about the world but nothing about myself. It wasn’t hard for Talon to find me and scoop me up ‘cause I didn’t know I should be running from them.

“They were delighted to find me alive, even more so with these new abilities and a mind like a blank slate. They built me from the ground up, just like Amélie, took away everything that made us  _ us _ , took away the conscience, and just left a killer behind. Mindless. That’s what we were, what I was, for years. Sometimes something would nag at my mind, but I could never catch the memory, gone before it ever really resurfaced.”

“What happened?” Jack promoted when Gabe fell quiet. Something must have happened, Gabriel knew who he was now, after all.

“Remember that time in Dorado?”

“First time Soldier:76 ever ran into Reaper.” Jack said. It had taken him a little while to believe who Reaper was. He wanted to believe that Talon had created a second Project Reaper, so that that didn’t have to be Gabe, almost as much as he’d wanted it  _ to _ be Gabe.

“Yeah. You came ‘round that corner and my brain just woke up and it said: that’s Jack Morrison.”

“In Dorado, you left, ran even though you still had the upper hand. I never knew why.”

“Because I could barely see straight with all the stuff that was crashing through my mind, let alone fight. All I could think about was the order to  _ Kill Jack Morrison _ and it made me feel sick and I didn’t know why. I’d had plenty of orders like that and carried them out without thought or emotion. But that one, that one left a lump in my throat and a bitter taste in my mouth and there was too much pouring through my head for me to work out why.

“So I ran, holed up somewhere and tried to sort through it all. You triggered all my memories, everything I used to be, everything I’d done, all of my friend’s that I’d hurt, trying to kill you. I wanted to forget, resented you for making me remember, the part of me that’s Reaper hated you for it, made me want to hurt you. The part of me that’s Gabe just wanted to fall back into your arms.”

“Why didn’t you?” Jack asked, remembering himself when he finally accepted who Reaper was, knowing his shots never missed by accident when they fought.

“Because there wasn’t much Gabe left. I’d still forget for long periods and when I did remember, it was like having two people inside of me, constantly fighting for control and it’s a fight that Gabe never won unless you were standing in front of me, running towards me in battle, protecting your friends,  _ our  _ friends. The part of me that’s Gabe would wrest just enough control then, attack a different opponent, be slightly off with my shots, call a retreat too early,  _ anything _ to stop that order in my head from being completed.  _ Kill Jack Morrison _ .

“But I never came to you because I’m not stupid, Jack, how could you still love me? After everything I’d done? And in the end, that’s the thing that scared me the most. That you’d hate me, that you wouldn’t love me anymore. That you wouldn’t even know me anymore.” Gabriel finished, Jack turning in his arms and kissing away the salty tears that crept down his face, bringing him closer.

“But you’re Gabriel Reyes now. You were before they brought you in, I know it. Reaper would never have been caught so easily. You didn’t want to hurt the team. What happened?” Jack asked, Gabriel had never shown a reticence to fight anyone else in Overwatch before.

“The more I saw you the easier it got for Gabriel to fight through, but I guess the catalyst was Amélie.”

“Amélie?” Jack asked, he knew Widowmaker was still with Talon, knew that Reaper sometimes worked with her.

“Seeing you made me remember things and the next time I saw Widowmaker, I remembered who she was. I tried to make her remember, found photos and showed them to her, of herself, of Gérard, of the team, but nothing worked. When she’s not on a mission, she just...  _ sits _ . Sits and stares blankly, as if she’s nothing more than a programme, waiting for her next set of orders to come through. I was with her last week, I remembered a story from back when Ana was training her as a sniper, you remember the time? Gérard made her her favourite dessert the first time she made a bullseye from two thousand meters, but he made it wrong and ended up giving everyone food poisoning?”

“Yeah, I remember.” Jack smiled, pressing it against Gabriel’s skin as he recalled the fond memory.

“I was smiling as I told it, remembering everything, remembering you being a baby and whining that your stomach hurt for the entire night, how I didn’t get any sleep, Ana mixing up some home remedy she swore would curb the effects but that no one would drink because it smelled so vile. Gérard tripping over himself trying to apologise to everyone and Amélie just laughing, free and happy with her head thrown back, laughing so hard she started snorting. Amélie,  _ snorting _ . But then I looked up and, she wasn’t even looking at me, Jack, just staring straight through me, her eyes dull and her heart barely beating and I realised that if I stayed, if I didn’t find the courage to come back here, that that was going to be me too. I decided it was better to let Overwatch catch me, have you not love me and the team decide to execute me, than end up like Amélie.”

“I’m so glad you came back.” Jack whispered into his skin, pushing away thoughts of Gabe vacant and emotionless, empty.

“I still want to help her. I was never that close to her. I wonder if Ana or someone could get through to her. I don’t believe she’s gone.” Gabriel replied, holding on to Jack tighter, as if  anchoring himself in the present.  

“She’s the one that shot Ana.” Jack reminded him, as gently as he could.

“That’s what makes me think Amélie must still be in there somewhere.”

“Why?” Jack asked, confused.

“Ana should be dead. Widowmaker doesn’t  _ miss _ . She just doesn’t. And she doesn’t inflict wounds, she  _ kills _ .”

“You think the wound wasn’t fatal on purpose?”

“I don’t know. But I hope so.” Gabe said. Jack understood why. If he was the one being given a second chance right now, then he would fight for one for Amélie too. “Do you think Ana would be willing to try?”

“I think Ana would be willing to do just about anything to save one of her friends. I think that’s just about the only thing that might save us in the morning.” Jack sighed. They wouldn’t even get until morning, the rest of the base would find out in a couple of hours that Jack wasn’t on watch anymore. Athena would sound the alarm when her sensors picked him up inside Gabriel’s cell. But it was hard to worry about that when his head was resting on Gabriel’s chest, a gentle hand rubbing circles into his back.

“I forgot. What do you think they’ll do?” Gabe asked, but there was a drowsiness seeping into his voice. Jack got it, they both had everything they would ever need right here. Outside didn’t matter.

“I don’t know. Be angry. Shout a lot.” Jack shrugged, feeling sleepy himself from sex and a warm embrace. He supposed some of them would be relieved, some wouldn’t understand, some would want to punish Reaper anyway and some would just be happy to have Gabriel back. “We’ll deal with it when it comes.”

“We?”

“Yeah, we.”

“Cariño?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m tired.” Gabe said, Jack knew he didn’t just mean he was sleepy now. He meant that he was tired of the fight, tired of not being with Jack, tired of fighting against himself all the time. Tired of the guilt.

“Me too.”

“Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“Tell me it’s gonna be okay.”

“It’s gonna be okay, Gabi.” Jack promised, and falling asleep tangled together with Gabriel, he knew it was true.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading and for all the comments and kudos, it means the world to me! 
> 
> Hmu on [tumblr](http://shadyanne.tumblr.com/) and holla at me if you play on the ps4 ;) 
> 
> P.S. if you don't watch black sails then you should, the finale just caused me to transcend into a higher astral plain, no tv show will ever be this good ever again, we as the human race just peaked with Black sails and might as well stop making media now :') - be warned if you do fancy it though there are major spoilers all over my blog <3
> 
> Thank you again!


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